And then there’s the Vegas buffet. What a crock of $hit, at any hour. $40/head for the “good” ones, serving a wide variety of food that’s entirely forgettable. I’d rather spend that $40 on a restaurant that has something I’ll want to come back for again.

I’m so hitting a level 6!

If you were going to a Japanese buffet or an American home cooking buffet, I would think the opposite would apply: stay away from the hot foods entirely until you have completed due diligence on the salad-type offerings and the cold appetizers and, of course, the sushi which would be really, really unappealing if presented in a chafing dish.

Actually, I have very little experience with buffets in upstate NY. I eat buffets when I go to Las Vegas, where my M.O. is the opposite of yours. I wait till the very end of the lunch hour (usually having worked up an appetite trolling the floor of a trade show) then make it my only meal of the day. Rio generally gets reviewed as the best of the buffets; I also like Bellagio (spectacular dishes though not very well prepared) and Todai for Japanese (the quality here varies drastically but you can tell whether it’s a good day by inspecting the sushi offerings before you commit to eat there).

And, I am a sucker for any buffet that allows me unlimited access to oysters or other bivalves. That is a win for me, a sure loser for my buffet host.